newt gingrich was claiming that for four consecutive years as speaker he balanced the budget. well, he'd only been speaker for two of the years that his budget was balanced. he backed of that claim. debates have the ability to push back on claims that are deceptive and increase the level of accuracy. >> almost you persuade me. but as you know, there's so much talk about how we're in a time of post-truth politics. one of mitt romney's own campaign pollsters said that they're not going to let their campaign be dictated by fact checkers and although he didn't include, call you by name. he includes you, miss jamieson, and your colleagues at factcheck.org. >> and the romney campaign, when it posts the big deceptions of the obama campaign, cites the fact checkers in many of those. and importantly, we know something about fact checking actually mattering. so first we know that campaigns have adjusted their claims. the obama campaign was saying that romney had outsourced. >>> i am barack obama and i approve this message. >> running for governor, mitt romney campaigned as a job creator